Political Wisdom: How Did Colbert Do?

By Mary Lu Carnevale

Stephen Colbert’s testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee Friday drew laughs and complaints – and attracted plenty of people to the hearing room. But some lawmakers said that instead of focusing attention on farm workers and immigration issues, the Comedy Central host largely stayed in his TV character, cracking one-liners and poking fun at Congress.

Ditching his “prepared” testimony, Colbert delivered a punch-lined discourse on his chief qualification as an expert on the issue: A 10-hour stint working the fields. Staying in the character of a faux TV newsman, he also threw in a few one-liners – referencing colonoscopies and Brazilian bikini waxes — more suitable for a late-night show on Comedy Central or Cinemax than morning C-SPAN.

“No doubt we just locked up the Comedy Channel vote,” Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis chided. “My opinion, we should forget social satirists. Given Congress’ low approval, maybe we should invite the Glee cast to perform next.”

His antics certainly brought national attention to the hearing room, though it’s unclear whether anyone will remember the real point of the hearing – migrant workers in America – as much as they’ll remember the day the Colbert Circus came to Congress.

There will be plenty of replays on the nightly newscasts, illustrating that Democratic control of Congress guarantees that important issues are dealt with in only the most sensitive, serious, and mature terms.

Nope, just kidding. What the video actually shows is a cringe-inducing Andy-Kaufmanesque display of audacity, which will illustrate that when silly Members of Congress desirous of the attention of popular comedians invite said comedians to embarrass them and the process over which they preside, they will happily oblige them.

Colbert embarrassed them so much, in fact, that he was asked by Rep. John Conyers to leave the committee room before his in-character, insensitive, and occasionally kind of racist testimony ended. Conyers later backed off the request, and Republican Rep. Lamar Smith delighted in prolonging the pain of Democrats who invited Colbert by asking him several questions on the matter (and getting an endorsement for the Pledge to America)…

Flashback: Republicans invited Elmo to testify in 2002 on music education in public schools. That particular stunt went off without embarrassing anyone.

Stephen Colbert spent most of Friday’s congressional hearing on immigration mocking Congress and cracking jokes about “corn packing,” but Colbert did break character at least once and, if only for a moment, revealed a serious side rarely seen by the public…

The purpose of bringing Colbert to Washington was to raise awareness about migrant labor, and Colbert arguably made that happen. What would have been a relatively uncovered and routine Friday morning hearing became a media sensation.

“I certainly hope that my star power can bump this hearing all the way to C-SPAN 1,” Colbert exclaimed during his opening remarks.

The comic pundit Stephen T. Colbert, with tongue in cheek but aimed to lash, blustered his way in conservative character through a four-minute speech about immigration reform in front of a House subcommittee Friday morning, a fake blowhard before a panel of real pontificators. His message: Working on a farm is so hard that Americans don’t want to do it, so immigration and labor laws should be reformed to allow illegal crop workers a clean path to citizenship.

“I don’t want a tomato picked by a Mexican,” Colbert testified. “I want it picked by an American, sliced by a Guatemalan and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian.”

Toward the end of the otherwise ponderous and inconclusive two-hour hearing, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) asked Colbert why he was interested in the issue. The arrogant anchorman’s mask of sarcasm appeared to vanish.

“I like talking about people who don’t have any power,” he said, the bravado gone from his voice as he worked his way to a downer of a punch line. “It seems like the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come here. . . . And at the same time, we invite them here and ask them to leave. . . . I don’t want to take anyone’s hardship away from them [but] migrant workers suffer and have no rights.”

Comments (5 of 10)

Nothing like plenty of satire to make our politicians realize just how stupid they really are-Enforce legal immigration rules so that everyone will be happy with this issue- SECURE OUR BORDERS. Don't allow the criminals in- Send them home when discovered-keep the honest folks( who are here LEGALLY) who just want to support their families.DO NOT allow illegals access to our medicaid system . Penalize Americans who HIRE the illegals!! They are draining our finances.If Americans want the jobs, let them have first choice. If we are to become a "closed" country- Don't let ANYONE in . OR, how about forcing our able bodied (and there are MANY of them) medicaid citizens to take these jobs, instead of paying them from the taxpayers salaries while they sit on their butts every day?

8:49 pm September 26, 2010

BoIsBS wrote :

So we treat the illegal as our slave. Big deal. Our congressmen treat us in the same manner.

4:35 am September 26, 2010

maf1120 wrote :

Congress is a joke and he is a comedian so it worked out perfectly. Ant the people who object to Colbert are the same type of thinkers like Boxer who insisted on being called Senator.

2:45 pm September 25, 2010

H. Craig Bradley wrote :

The reason most Americans, including teenagers and the unemployed, won't do farm work or other manual labor in agricultural is because they are lazy. The guy down the street has two kids in High School who just drink beer in the garage with their deadbeat friends most every afternoon all summer. (Even while the house was on the market for sale!). Americans have it easy and want to contract everything out, including mowing the front law, and yes, to illegal Mexican immigrants who often I observe, are paid in cold cash. Our labor rules have spoiled everything and nearly everybody.

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Capital Journal is WSJ.com’s unique site for analysis of the political and policy maneuvering in Washington in the era of Barack Obama. It features the Capital Journal columns and occasional other postings by executive Washington editor Gerald F. Seib, and will house Political Wisdom, the Journal’s daily aggregation of the smartest political analysis from around the Internet. Also look for regular columns by Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute and occasional contributions from others.